626 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1683. 



Names of Places. Longitude. Latitude. An. Dom. V ariation 



At sea 55° O'e. ...27° O' s. . . . l676. . .. 24° O'w 



At Bombay 72 30 e ip On 1676 12 w 



At Cape Comorin 76 e. . . . 8 15 n 168O, ... 8 48 w 



AtBallasore 87 Oe 21 30 n 168O 8 20 w 



At Fort St. George 80 e 13 15 n 16BO 8 10 w 



At the west point of Java 104 e 6 40 s 1676. ... 3 10 w 



At sea 58 e 39 s l677 27 30 W 



At the Isle of St. Paul 72 Oe 38 Os l677 23 30 w 



At Van Diemen's Land. 142 e 42 25 s l642. ... 



At New Zealand 170 e 40 50 s l642 9 e 



At Three King's Isle in New Zealand 169 30 e 34 35 s . . . l642 8 40 e 



At the Isle Rotterdam in the South Sea 184 Oe. ...20 15 s l642 6 20 e 



On the Coast of New Guinea 149 e 4 30 s l643 8 45 e 



At the west point of New Guinea 126 e. . . . 26 s. . . . l643. ... 5 30 e 



We must now make some remarks on the foregoing table, and first: that ia 

 all Europe the variation at this time is west, and more in the eastern parts than 

 the western, as likewise that it seems throughout to be upon the increase that 

 way. — Secondly, that on the coast of America, about Virginia, New England, 

 and Newfoundland, the variation is likewise Westerly; and that it increases all 

 the way as you go northerly along the coast, so as to be above 20° at Newfound- 

 land, nearly 30° in Hudson's Straits, and not less than 57° in Baffin's Bay; also 

 that as you sail eastward from this coast the variation diminishes. From these 

 two it is a legitimate corollary: that somewhere between Europe and the north 

 part of America, there ought to be an easterly variation, or at least no westerly ; 

 and so I conjecture it is about the easternmost of the Tercera islands.— ^3 . That 

 on the coast of Brasil there is east variation, which increases very notably as 

 you go to the southward, so as to be 1 2" at Cape Frio, and over against the 

 river of Plate 20^°, and from thence, sailing south-westerly to the Straits of 

 Magellan, it decreases to 17^ and at the west entrance but 14°. 4. That at the 

 eastward of Brasil properly so called, this easterly variation decreases, so as to 

 be very little at St. Helena and Ascension, and to be quite gone, and the com- 

 pass point true about 18° of longitude west from the Cape of Good Hope. — 5. 

 That to the eastward of the aforesaid places a westward variation begins, which 

 obtains in the whole Indian Sea, and arises to no less than 18*^ under the equa- 

 tor itself about the meridian of the northern part of Madagascar, and near the 

 same meridian, but in 39° south latitude it is found full 27i^ from thence 

 easterly the west variation decreases, so as to be but little more than 8° at Cape 

 Comorin, and than 3° on the coast of Java, and to be quite extinct about the 

 Molucca islands, as also a little to the westward of Van Diemen's Land, found 

 out by the Dutch in l642. — 6. That to the eastward of the Moluccas and Van 



